Reproduction of a merkhet

INTRODUCTION
- Man and the stars
SECTION I
- The dawn of astronomy: Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Biblical Cosmos
SECTION II
- The cosmos becomes a sphere
SECTION III
- The geometry of the cosmos
SECTION IV
- The skies of Islam
SECTION V
- Evangelisation of the cosmos
SECTION VI
- The Renaissance of Astronomy
SECTION VII
- Galileo: the cosmos through the telescope
SECTION VIII
- From Galileo to Newton

Sarcophagus lid portraying the goddess Nut

Fragmentary roll of magical-cum-religious papyrus

Zoom

Reproduction of a merkhet, ca. 600 B.C.
London, Science Museum, inv. 1913-573

It consists of two parts: a horizontal bar with a plumb line and a sighting instrument made out of a V-shaped palm rib (bâi). By setting his aim on the plumb line through the V and aligning it with the North Pole Star, the observer could fix a north-south bearing and estimate the time by the transit of certain stars as they cross the meridian.